Our long time customer Carl brings his 2007 BMW 328i in because it’s “service engine soon light” is on and the “car is shaking when accelerating”.

We welcome Carl in, explain our diagnostic process, and get him in our loaner car so he can get to work. By lunchtime we’ve figured out what is causing the warning light and I call Carl to get the repair approved. I explain “Hi Carl this is Neil from Oceanside Motorsports and I’ve found out why the service engine soon light is on. Well, your engine is missing and…..

Before I could get in another word he started screaming through the phone – “WHAT DO YOU MEAN ITS MISSING!?!? IT WAS THERE WHEN I DROPPED THE CAR OFF! YOU’RE CRAZY! WHERE COULD THE ENGINE HAVE GONE OFF TO!?!? |#%”

After a minute he calmed down and I could explain that the engine was misfiring meaning it was running on less than its 6 cylinders causing the shaking and running issues and his engine was very much in the same place it was when he dropped the car off.

After a good laugh from both of us Carl took my advice and replaced all 6 ignition coils along with the spark plugs that were almost due by mileage. By replacing the other 5 coils preventatively we saved Carl tons of money, hassle, and confusion in the future. All 6 ignition coils are now covered under our lifetime warranty and Carl will never have to pay to replace them again. We the sent over our digital inspection report which included pictures of any needed items (and proof that his engine was still installed) so we could make an educated decision on any future maintenance.

We washed the car, triple checked his engine was still installed, and got him his car back that very same day.